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The death of Jeffrey Lee Pierce by Rock Ink - Issuu A call was made from Australia to Kid Congo Powers. The Parisian rock elite, always in love with tragic figures like Morrison, Thunders and Iggy Pop, had found a new hero. His guitar had arrived and ours hadnt come yet, sighs Morrison. Texacala Jones noted that Pierce carried a handwritten note from Harry in his wallet with instructions on how she dyed her hair, including the types of products she used. The Gun Club's last ever gig, with bassist Elizabeth Montague replacing Bradbury, was at The Palace in Hollywood on December 18, 1995. Everybody felt the same and we were there for the music. Not to mention the dark cross-pollination between Pierce and good friend Nick Caves many projects. With his tousled blond-dyed hair, Jeffrey Lee Pierce was in many ways the archetypal American cult musician, at the crossroads of many musical styles (the goth scene, the swamp blues now revived by G-Love & Special Sauce) which later came to prominence. Elvis From Hell is due out in 2020. retrieved. Pierce was a man in constant conflict with his inner demons. It was started by Pierce, who was the president of Blondies U.S. fan club, whose lead singer Debbie Harry was a longtime supporter. I take away that I had an amazing friendship with Jeffrey. Gun Club looked like serious contenders but, by 1984's "Las Vegas Story" (which would have formed an apt soundtrack for the Mike Figgis Oscar- nominated Leaving Las Vegas movie) Pierce's boozy and druggy life-style had started to overshadow the music. The lasting legacy of The Gun Club singer Jeffrey Lee Pierce Pierce attended Granada Hills High School, where he participated in the drama program, acting in plays and writing several short experimental theater pieces. Jeffrey digressed a lot. They were musical geniuses. He was a record nerd but we were also dreamers and into a lot of rocknroll fantasy. Far too young by any means. At the center of this storm was Pierces voice. The maddening part for me is that I missed most of it. Jeffrey decided that he wanted a girl in the band and they were wary of who they were going to get, so they said, Would you do it? says Morrison of her entry into the band. Id gone down the skids again and Jeffrey was in Utah staying with his father and cleaning up again. He was always at our gigs selling his autograph. Yes. He still made ends meet by working hard in a record store and contributing to music fanzines but, by 1981, he was at the helm of Gun Club, an impressive fourpiece (also featuring Kid Congo Powers on guitar, Rob Ritter on bass and Terry Graham on drums) who seemed to create their own brand of swampy, ramshackle, psychotic, blues- influenced music. "Death Party" (uncredited) 2012; Too Young to Die. [30], Pierce is honored by Thstrm in a 2005 song recording. By Gregg L. Friedman MD, I really miss the great musical groups of the 1960's. With the band ready to board a connecting flight bound for Australia, Duckworth and Graham quit thanks to Pierces unreasonable demands. Jeffrey Lee Pierce - Wikidata You didnt show up to do a gig to nameless and faceless people. See the article in its original context from. IN THE LATE 60S! In 1979, following in the footsteps of the Germs, the Dead Kennedys and the Dickies, Pierce formed his own punk band, Creeping Ritual. Were having a band. And that was that!. In 1993, the last Gun Club album, ironically entitled Lucky Jim, featured his Japanese wife, Romi Mori, on bass. Pierce was also a keen supporter of the No Wave movement in New York City. Physically, however, he was as unlikely a candidate to don the mantle of rock and roll clich as anyone; he was just a childs drawing of abject gloom, a stocky fireplug frame, dark, insomniac eyes skittering beneath the damp straw tangle of his anime-angular hair, an upside-down sorrow-mouth. The singer lived for a time in London and gigged fitfully around Europe, doing strange versions of jazz standards (John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme", Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit") and releasing disappointing albums of past and recent concerts on many labels (Two Sides of the Beast on Dojo for instance). Four months after the Gun Club frontman had passed away, the article labeled him as the true victim of what Engelshoven interpreted as "the American disease." But fantasy bled into reality and it was annoying to the band. In 2014, Sergio Rotman of the Argentinian band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs edited a special edition of 500CDs with versions of 14 Gun Club and Pierce songs. Despite the continued alcohol and drug abuse, Pierces talents were flourishing. After six months in Japan, Pierce and Mori returned to London in August 1986, with Pierce intending to reform the Gun Club. Hes never name-checked Jeffrey and I think thats a little rude., Rupert Orton is quick to acknowledge where he hears The Gun Club now: Guadalupe Plata are, I think, the people closest to re-inventing it in a way thats interesting. Sometimes I say The Las Vegas Story album as a work. This contained forgotten preliminary recordings for a further . Not even Elvis: I hate Elvis. Im an important man! [41][42][43], Grove contacted other artists via Myspace to contribute to the project, including Lanegan, and as the project grew, artists such as Isobel Campbell and Jim Sclavunos also agreed to contribute. Titles like "Walking With the Beast", "Bad America" and "Wildweed" now seem sad portents of what was to come. Musically, most of the pieces were in place very early. Wildweed's monochrome cover shot, of Pierce stood in a windswept barren landscape with a shotgun over his shoulder, was photographed on the south coast of England, as Pierce told a Swedish interviewer, but intended to "look like Texas. cause of death. He was the rock star Ian Astbury wanted to be. Furthermore, his cover of the traditional outlaw ballad John Hardy on Miami is eerily similar to a Leadbelly version (on most compilations, the accordion-less 3:13 cut). Still, the most critically lauded of their albums, it roared out of ramshackle blocks we hadnt yet built even in our imaginations, an inconceivably twisted fusion of blues, punk, and country, a mixture of Robert Johnson, Skip James, Son House, Howlin Wolf, Huddie Ledbetter, the Blasters, X, Black Flag, Blondie, The Sex Pistols, Burning Spear, Smokey Robinson, Canned Heat, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, and Hank Williams. writer: "The Stranger in Our Town" TV Series; 2012; 1 episode; Personal details. Jeffrey Lee Pierce Live at 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival", "Gallows stream new album 'Gallows' ahead of release listen", "Gallows Everybody Loves You (When You're Dead)", "Cave, Perkins Pay Tribute To Gun Club's Pierce", "Album: Various Artists, We Are Only Riders The JLP Sessions Project (Glitterhouse)", "Nick Cave and Blondie's Debbie Harry duet on The Gun Club tribute album", "Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project to release second album,", "Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, Thurston Moore and Jim Sclavunos play Nobody's City new music", "Nick Cave and Blondie's Debbie Harry duet on the Gun Club tribute album", "The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project", "Ghost on the Highway: A Portrait of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and the Gun Club", "The Gun Club Ghost on the Highway: A Portrait Of Jeffrey Lee Pierce & The Gun Club (Ballad of Jeffrey Lee Pierce told by former bandmates)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jeffrey_Lee_Pierce&oldid=1148319776, Articles with dead external links from July 2021, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles lacking reliable references from January 2022, Pages using infobox musical artist with associated acts, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2010, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 5 April 2023, at 12:57. His last TV appearance was with the Bad Seeds on Later with Jools Holland, recorded on May 14, 1994.[21]. All rights reserved. With The Cramps on indefinite hiatus due to ongoing legal wrangles with their label, Powers re-joined The Gun Club. The Gun Club went on to release 11 other live and studio albums, and Mr. Pierce recorded two relatively straightforward solo albums. Suddenly the songwriting just happened. Death Certificate Index Pierce, Jeffrey Lee Certificate Number: 1975-MN-017354 Death: July 28, 1975 County of Death: Itasca County Mother's Maiden Name: SCHAEFFER Date of Birth: Jul 2 1959 Place of Birth: MINNESOTA. It was this enormous sound of huge discordance, and Jeffrey Lee was mumbling something into his mic and when it hit critical mass and couldnt get any bigger, Jim Duckworth pointed his guitar at the baying mob that was the crowd and hit the first notes of The Fire Of Love, and the whole place just exploded. Jeffrey Lee Pierce July 2, 1959 July 28, 1975 Matthew Lawrence Says He Was Fired From Agency After Refusing To Strip For Director Offering Him A Marvel Role, The Daily Show Moves Into Post-Trevor Noah Era While Paying Tribute Contenders TV: Docs + Unscripted, The Traitors Team Shaking Things Up For Season 2 As Cirie Fields Doubles Down On Winning Strategy Contenders TV: Docs + Unscripted, Layoffs Underway At Amazon Studios & Prime Video, Handful Of Creative Executives Impacted Update, The Issues, The Stakes, Movies & TV Shows Affected, How Long It Might Last, Netflix Lands Adam McKays New Comedy Average Height, Average Build, Plumbs Another Domestic Win At $38M; Karting Past $1 Billion Global, Serious Moments For Media Give Way To Satire & Mirth; Biden & Wood Remarks. His obsessions crawled all over him. An obsession for record collecting in his early teens led to him meeting fellow music fan and future Gun Club guitarist and co-founder, Kid Congo Powers (ne Brian Tristan). In July 2014, Australian musician Spencer P. Jones argued that the blues influence in Pierce's music was largely the result of his access to the record collection of Canned Heat frontman Bob Hite, who allowed Pierce to come to his house and choose ten albums from Hite's vast blues record collection as he was dying. And speaking of language, Ive tried to avoid it, but his last name even rhymes with fierce. But for those who played in The Gun Club and suffered the outrageous behaviour, demands and whims of Jeffrey Lee Pierce, there remains an enormous sense of pride at what was created. (LA WEEKLY), GARY LACHMAN (NEE VALENTINE): A NEW YORK ROCKER SAILS INTO THE MYSTIC, FACE IT: DEBBIE HARRY HAS HAD A HAPPY AND LUCKY LIFE, Please Kill Me Remembers Jeffrey Lee Pierce | Death Or Glory. was Leadbelly. [32], In 2010, OFF!, a punk "supergroup" fronted by Keith Morris, formerly of Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, released a song dedicated to and named after Pierce. In late 1993, Pierce spent time with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds during the recording of their album Let Love In. Jeffrey Lee Pierce And The Gun Club - The Life And Times Of Jeffrey Lee Pierce And The Gun Club. Since the death of Jeffrey Lee Pierce on March 31st of 1996, Creeping Ritual Music then became a vital resource for archiving. And while the new fans are throwing themselves with abandon to the maelstrom emanating from the stage, older heads are sensing a familiarity that hasnt been heard for some time. Born in Texas in 1958, Jeffrey Lee Pierce later moved to the West Coast. Jeffrey Lee Pierce was an American punk, and a bluesman lead singer and guitarist for that most contradictory of bands, The Gun Club, whose erratic embers smoldered and sputtered fitfully during the 80s and the first half of the 90s, rarely if ever catching fully in fames spotlight, yet illuminating the margins with a deep fire that, since their passing long ago now, feels richer and more blood-red the older we all get. He was a one-man southern death cult, a bad Indian. With Meg White pumping her bass drum, Jack stomps on those overdrive pedals again and hollers, You look just like an Elvis from hell! For those older heads it all clicks into place and at the same time The White Stripes acknowledge forebears every bit as important to their oeuvre as Robert Johnson, Lead Belly or Son House: the song is For The Love Of Ivy and The White Stripes are paying dues to The Gun Club. Released in 1987 to much critical acclaim, Mother Juno and its subsequent tour became the most successful period of The Gun Club. It must have been so hard for him. Toward the end of his life, Jeffrey Lee Pierce increasingly embraced a more traditional blues, as if hed lost interest in the future altogether. He'd come almost every day and just sit on the couch and then he'd come out to dinner with us and just mumble away. Elvis From Hell - Wikipedia While Jeffrey was slipping into a coma and dying, I lived (totally oblivious) on 16 acres of unfarmed flood plain surrounded by mountains alongside my common law partner, my baby son, two big dogs, a Manx cat, a rooster. Its the Cocteau Twins! We got talking with them and they were so friendly and invited us to their show that night at the Palace Theatre. The sessions were recorded with acoustic guitars in Grove's bedroom using a "boombox" device. Long before anyone coined the term mosh pit, my enduring memory of that concert, aside from its sheer mesmeric ebullience, is of the ripe full-body bruising I got to gingerly explore at my hungover leisure the following day. Not that you can blame him, given Pierces increasingly erratic substance-augmented behavior. And I also think that the records speak for themselves and Im really proud to be on them. The Gun Club have themselves informed and inspired many artists, including The White Stripes, Screaming Trees, Calla, The Pixies, Henry Rollins, and PJ Harvey. 13 October 2015. stated in. His premature death at the age of 37 on March 31, 1996, was shrouded with a tragic inevitability, and sadly he never saw his legacy truly take shape while he was still alive. "Jeffrey Lee Pierce" n "I Don't Belong", "OFF! The ultimate beginner's guide to Jeffrey Lee Pierce - Far Out Magazine He couldnt perform any more and he felt such an idiot having to do it sober. The film will cover Jeffrey Lee Pierce's life and career through his death in 1996 at the age of 37, using original interviews and archive footage. But it was with a depressing sense of inevitability that the band would collapse once again. "[25], Pierce contacted Powers in early 1996 to work together on a new iteration of the Gun Club, and they began making plans, with Powers looking to recruit musicians in New York. After punk and post-punk, the next logical step was for us to have a band.. By this time, Pierce had become obsessed with the ethereal music of the Cocteau Twins via Mori, and a chance encounter with the bands guitarist Robin Guthrie and singer Liz Fraser in the Hollywood Hills would lead to the reformation of The Gun Club with Guthrie in the producers chair. Hell, right off the bat you almost recoil from the light in Shirleys lips, fleetingly grasp the tiger in Debra Anns hips. He was very unusual and a very unique guy. Find a Grave. Sex Beat, their introduction to the world, weve already discussed, but contrast it with the bands final song Anger Blues, and we can see the parabola of their musical journey, an ass-backwards shedding of raw punk attitude for well, the actual blues. His demise is another sad reminder that the rock 'n' roll life-style can also lead to oblivion. At his suggestion, their next album, Mother Juno, was recorded at Hansa studios. Morris, a friend and former housemate of Pierce, had suggested "The Gun Club" as a band name while they were living together. Come back, Jeffrey Lee Pierce. Sometimes hed be like Robert Mitchum in Night Of The Hunter where hed take a Bible on stage and throw it to the floor. It was at this place called The Gala in Norwich, he says. [22][23] Pierce flew back to London in February to collect his belongings then returned to the United States, having been requested to leave England following his arrest and lack of visa. "[19] In May 1994, Pierce joined the band on-stage during the "Let Love In" European tour,[20] culminating in a show at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London, where he sang a cover of the Johnny Cash/Bob Dylan song "Wanted Man". It had a great feel and it was special.. If he inspired Jack White musically (and he did), he more readily recalled Jack Black, physically while embodying, in his own agitated head at least, Jack on Fire. 5", "THE GUN CLUB The Las Vegas Story Punk Blues Vinyl Album Gallery #vinylrecords", "From The Archives -The Gun Club- Concert Chronology / Gigography", "iTunes Music Wildweed by Jeffrey Lee Pierce", "The Quietus | Features | A Quietus Interview | Kid Congo Powers Interview: From Gun Play To Monkey Business", "Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Setlist at Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht", "Nick Cave on Jeffrey Lee Pierce: 'His Obsessions Crawled All Over Him', "Gun Club Oral History, Part Four (Pastoral Hide and Seek to 1996)", "an interview w/ Keith Morris & Dimitri Coats of OFF! Of course, we can play the influence game forever we have to mention Howlin Wolf as well as a 1959 album by Marty Robbins called Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, particularly the song The Masters Call., But its important to remember it goes both ways. By subscribing, I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. He touches on Nick Cave, The Cramps, and how R.E.M. . Grove uncovered a recording of three songs on a cassette marked "JLP Songs", and realized they were from sessions he had worked on with Pierce for an album they were planning. Pierce returned to Los Angeles before relocating to Utah to stay with his father and write. [17] With Mori now on bass, the band recorded 1987's Mother Juno, produced by the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie, and featuring songs such as "Thunderhead", "Araby" and "The Breaking Hands". Come on! Death Party is an EP by American rock band The Gun Club, released in 1983. We were recording in Holland and, as you can imagine, you could get hold of anything you wanted. The confluence of tragedy and a type of bleak, resigned comedy. 2023 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. He slithered away in Salt Lake City, Utah, on. He looks plain lost. Listen to The Birthday Party before and after Jeffrey. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. He was 37 years old. In a 2012 interview with Gun Club biographer Gene Temesy, Nick Cave, a great admirer of the frontman, said: "With Jeffrey, you pretty much entered his world when you saw him. Harry contributed backing vocals on the album Miami under the pseudonym D.H. Lawrence, and was a longtime mentor and supporter of Pierce. Send us a tip using our annonymous form. "[14] Pierce toured Europe as The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet, and from August 1985 he toured the United States and Canada. Elvis From Hell, a U.S./German co-production, is directed by Heiko Lange (B-Movie: Lust and Sound in West Berlin) and Jessica Andree (The Noise of Cairo) and is produced by Kobalt Productions Anahita Nazemi and Katrin Sandmann (Midsummer Nights Tango, Dancing Dreams) and Hunger Artist Productions Scott Crary (Kill Your Idols, William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, Fire Music). Singing then came second for him. Their problem was that they bamboozled everyone, including themselves in all likelihood. Stack O Lee. Something born mewling reluctant from the bayou mud. Youd go places and everybody was in on it, she says. Its August bank holiday 2002, and The White Stripes, hot on the back of their third album, White Blood Cells, are introducing a whole new generation to the blues at the annual Reading Festival. Produced by The Flesh Eaters Chris D and released in 1981, The Fire Of Love was the perfect distillation of Pierces vision of punk and blues coming together. But The Gun Club made things happen on their own terms. I wouldnt be playing guitar if it wasnt for him, and I wouldnt know a lot about music if it wasnt for him. It kind of sounds like a Christmas song but Jeffrey always described it as a love song.. DEATH PARTY - EP (13-Apr-83) 01.The House On Highland Ave 02.The Lie 03.The Light Of The World 04.Death Party 05.Come Back Jim Line-up: Jeffrey Lee Pierce (vocals)/ Jim Duckworth (guitar)/ Jimmy Joe Uliana (bass) and Dee Pop (drums). It was double-edged in not listening to anyone artistically or making horrible career moves but then again, in the end, it was not about career. But Jeffrey did make efforts to stay on top of all that sort of stuff. Kid Congo Powers chuckles when asked what hes proudest of: Many things. Still, the momentum nevertheless enabled Pierce to sign his band to Animal Records, a label set up by the Blondie guitarist Chris Stein. I think that was very much part of his character. Garnering much critical acclaim, it would prove to be an influential album, not least on the UKs nascent psychobilly scene and the 80s garage band revivalists that followed. His health had been poor for some time. It was an even trade! laughs Powers. Born in 1958, Jeffrey Lee Pierce was raised in the east LA suburb of El Monte. Jeffrey Lee Pierce. How about a title like Shes Like Heroin To Me? We really liked the songs. June 27, 1958; Died. The thing that I remember most about that show, and Ive never, ever forgotten it, is that they came on and its hard to overestimate the impact this has on you as a kid and this huge wall of feedback emanated from their instruments. Right up until Jeffrey died we were talking about doing something again, sighs Congo Powers. home [jeffreyleepierce.com] Anyone can read what you share. Then wed get together with the rest and they picked things up quickly.. Id heard that he was an oddball and difficult and all the rest, but when I heard the songs the ones on Miami I just thought they were fantastic., But she also saw another side to him: My favourite bit of being in The Gun Club was when Jeffrey would write songs and hed get a hold of me, and Id drive out to the valley where he lived with his mum and his sister. At the time of his death he survived by his large extended friends and family. "[7], The Las Vegas Story (1984) was the band's third album, seeing the return of Kid Congo Powers, drummer Terry Graham and a new bassist, Patricia Morrison. By then, his influence could be felt on the work of rootsier American outfits like Green on Red and on the new direction taken by Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds (which featured for a time the Gun Club refugee Kid Congo). And it was there that the next stage of The Gun Club began to take gestate. Co-edited by Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil, the authors of, The Knack had an amazing sound. He has written about music for Music365, Yahoo! The former couplet is from Fire of Love and the latter The Gun Clubs 1993 curtain call, Lucky Jim. His demise is another sad reminder that the rock 'n' roll life-style can also lead to oblivion. That was part of his charm. Pierce's autobiography, Go Tell The Mountain, goes into detail about the personal turmoil he experienced during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was the biggest influence in my life and thats a pretty big thing to take away. I See a Rainbow: An Interview with Award-Winning Songwriter Brenda Russell, Working on Not Feeling Alone: An Interview With Josh Ritter, Living Colours Vivid Turns 35: An Interview with Vernon Reid, Satirical Miniseries White House Plumbers Is an Uneven Glimpse into Proximity to Power, PopMatters Seeks Film Critics and Essayists, PopMatters Seeks Television Critics and Essayists. The future was acknowledged, however grimly envisioned. EXCLUSIVE: Jeffrey Lee Pierce, frontman singer of seminal LA punk rock band The Gun Club, is the subject of a new feature documentary. And move! Now head of the Punk Rock Blues booking and promotion agency, former Jim Jones Revue guitarist Rupert Orton recalls the impact the band had on him as teenager.